Katy harnesses empathy as her superpower in art + life, with a deep understanding and embodiment of the human condition that comes alive onstage.
Katy Ayne Jankouskas (formerly Kauffman) is a New York City-based dancer + artist. Born and raised in the sweetest place on earth, Hershey, PA — Katy fell in love with dancing at a young age, training at a ballet conservatory. She attended Towson University (Baltimore, MD) on scholarship, graduating Magna Cum Laude with dual degrees in Dance Performance (BFA) and Marketing (BS). Throughout her time at Towson, Katy was president and founding member of the National Honors Society of Dance Arts, acted as dance captain in a handful of company productions, earned numerous awards and scholarships, and received grant funding for her honors thesis research focusing on education + advocacy for arts marketing.
Katy moved to New York City shortly after graduating from university to pursue her professional career. Her most notable stage credits include making her professional musical theatre debut in the Riverside/Walnut Street Theatre co-production of Legally Blonde: The Musical and making her principal understudy debut as Lise Dassin in Westchester Broadway Theatre’s production of An American in Paris. She is a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association.
While Katy is thrilled to return to the stage and journey into her next opportunity, she is passionate about finding balance outside the industry and helping artists find their worth by creating lifestyle structure and demanding value. She believes artists hold many transferrable skillsets that will not only help them thrive day to day on a micro level, but will significantly change the world on a macro level, one industry at time. That said, she is currently modernizing healthcare as a product manager for Capable Health, and plans to continue showing artists “you can do both” as her performing career continues to flourish.